


betty

by moonlitcloud



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Folklore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25819540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlitcloud/pseuds/moonlitcloud
Summary: Ever since Bethany reacted poorly to Martha telling her she had feelings for over the summer, the two girls' relationship has been ruined and Martha is afraid, but determined to fix it.
Relationships: Martha Kaply/Bethany Walker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	betty

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Taylor Swift's song Betty!

Martha Kaply thought the game made her more confident, but sometimes she was worried she would regress back to her old self quicker than you could say _“Jumanji”._ Sure, in that moment she felt like she had finally broken out of her shell, but growth wasn’t always linear, and lately she wasn’t so sure of herself. She caught a flash of blonde hair around the corner, and Martha’s chest tightened, like she suddenly couldn’t breathe; for a split second she debated between turning around or pretending to be on the phone, but lucky for her it wasn’t Bethany, just a lookalike. She wasn’t ready to see her again, perhaps she’d never be.

“Hey Martha,” A familiar voice called. She turned around to see Spencer, who gave a curt nod; she replied with an awkward wave. _Great_ , she thought. Dodged one bullet just to run into the other person she wanted to avoid. Still, for some reason her heart rate had slowed down and it wasn’t as bad as she imagined; maybe it was because he wasn’t that important to her in the first place. They hadn’t spoken since the breakup over the summer, which wasn’t particularly eventful anyway. The two walked up the cobblestone path to Brantford High in utter silence; not even the crows around them were cawing. Martha kept her eyes glued to her beat-up Vans and fiddled with the blue straps of her Kånken backpack. “So…what homeroom are you in?” Spencer finally said. He was equally as fidgety as Martha.

“I’m in B,” she replied.

“Oh, cool, I’m in F. I think Bethany was supposed to be in B too but I heard she switched to D, I’m not sure why though. I think she’s having a _kicking off senior year party_ tonight, are you going?” He said.

Martha tried to keep a straight face so her uneasiness wouldn’t show, and she just shrugged. “No, probably not. Parties aren’t really my thing.” 

“Me neither,” Spencer admitted.

Thankfully, a teacher pulled Spencer aside to pass along a message for his mom, and Martha slipped away. Senior year was exactly like Jumanji, filled with imminent threats around every corner, except instead of rhinos and elephants, it was ex-boyfriends and… whatever Bethany was.

//

Martha somehow managed to avoid Bethany _and_ Spencer for the rest of the day, so she considered that a personal victory. Now all she wanted to do was speedwalk home as quickly as she could, and mope in her room.

“Yo, Martha! How’s it going?” Fridge called. Martha groaned, _spoke too soon_. She didn’t have anything going on with Fridge, so he was neutral ground in this jungle, but she wasn’t sure what he’d heard from the others.

“H-hey. Not bad, you know,” she forced a weak smile.

“You going to Bethany’s party tonight?” He asked.

“Maybe, I’ll see,” she lied. Martha hoped it’d get him off her back.

“Listen… I know something happened between you too and I think it’s best if you went there and actually _talked_ to her,” Fridge said. He gave her a genuine, concerned look, caring about other people wasn’t something that he did frequently pre-Jumanji.

“Nothing’s going on!” She insisted defensively.

He raised an eyebrow, “I may have failed 3 classes, but I’m not stupid. You’ve been in love with that girl for how long? I just know shit went down, but you gotta sort it out or else it’ll just get worse. Trust me.”

“What? I’m _not_ in love with her!” Martha exclaimed. Her face turned as crimson as her hair, and she checked her surroundings to make sure no one was close enough to hear.

“I don’t know, it looked pretty obvious to me. But sure, keep lying to yourself. You know the truth inside your heart, and you know what you should do. Follow your gut,” he said. “Damn, Jumanji really messed me up. I sound like a whole fortune cookie,” he cringed immediately, which brought a light chuckle out of Martha.

“Thanks, Mouse Finbar,” she grinned half-heartedly as she turned to cross the street.

“Hey, that’s _Moose_ Finbar to you!” He hollered. “Good luck, Ruby Roundhouse, you got this!”

//

FRIDGE: u here yet?

MARTHA: almost… I’m a few blocks away

FRIDGE: YES! So glad u could make it.

MARTHA: stop I’m THIS close to running back home…

FRIDGE: don’t u dare 😡

Martha could hear the pop music blasting from 3 blocks away as she approached Bethany’s house. If this was any other suburb, there’d be complaints for sure, but everyone in the neighbourhood loved Bethany. She was everyone’s All American sweetheart. The brisk autumn wind rustled the orange leaves by her feet, and she shivered in her thin cardigan. Nobody else on her lawn seemed to mind; they must’ve been drenched in sweat from all the dancing and grinding.

Suddenly, she saw her. Her honey blonde waves were tied up in a tight ponytail, swinging side to side as she strut down the steps with a red Solo cup in her hand. She wore a shimmery teal bodycon dress that complemented her eyes and highlighted her supermodel-esque physique and took Martha’s breath away. Even now, she was still weak for her.

Martha pressed her back against one of the perfectly trimmed hedges outside her yard, and watched intently. She ignored the leaves prickling against her cheeks, and forced herself to take deep breaths. _Think of Ruby Roundhouse, think of how badass you were, and still can be,_ she muttered to herself under her breath. Her phone buzzed in her cardigan pocket, making her jump.

FRIDGE: where are u??? I don’t see u

She spied Fridge’s athletic body pushing through the crowd as Bethany showed her friend Irene something on her phone. He was scanning the lawn like a confused ostrich running through the desert.

MARTHA: maybe this isn’t such a good idea :/

FRIDGE: u got this far cmon u can do it!!

To her confusion, she saw Fridge walk up to the DJ and whispered something to her.

_Ooh, baby I love your way everyday_

Martha’s head snapped up, and chills ran up and down her body like a primal instinct awakened inside her. Suddenly it was like a flip had switched, and she was inside a Jumanji dreamscape embodying Ruby Roundhouse again. She could _not_ believe Fridge did that, but it worked.

_Ooh, baby I love your way everyday_

She saw Bethany turn away from Irene, and she had a solemn, longing, expression on her face all of a sudden. Martha took another deep breath and marched over to Bethany, imagining that it was just the two of them in the jungle, and she was a 5’11” badass martial artist and killer of men. Bethany saw her from across the lawn, and suddenly it was like time stopped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fridge by the DJ booth giving her a thumbs up, but Martha stood frozen in her steps, like she was sinking in quicksand. At first it seemed like a good idea, but now her mouth was dry, and she didn’t know what to say to the other girl. To her delight, Bethany’s face lit up and she beamed. Nobody had seen her smile like that in ages (seriously, she had only been posting RBF instagram photos lately). “Martha! You- You came!”

“Can we maybe talk… or something?” Martha asked, picking at her cuticles profusely beneath her long cardigan sleeves.

“Yeah sure, follow me,” Bethany said. She excused herself from her friends and brought Martha through an archway to the garden, where it was a quiet haven away from the shouting teenagers and booming music. There were neat rows of flourishing roses, violets, and pansies, complemented by strings of fairy lights glowing against the moonlit sky. A lavish porcelain birdbath was in the centre of a miniature hedge maze. The lush greenery surrounding them reminded her of Jumanji again, and it calmed her nerves again.

“I’m sorry,” Martha blurted out.

Bethany frowned, “No, you have nothing to be sorry about. _I_ should apologize. I’m so sorry, Martha. I can’t believe I reacted so… horribly when you told me you had feelings for me. I was scared and I just didn’t know how to react and that was so shitty of me.” She tried to take another sip of her drink, but found that it was empty and and set her cup down frustratedly. “I guess I was just too much of a coward to admit to myself that I might… you know.”Bethany lowered her eyes and stared at the ground, beginning to tremble a little. She was a little tipsy, but not drunk enough to be completely carefree. Not many people had seen Bethany Walker like this before — vulnerable, uncertain, and afraid.

“Be into girls?” Martha offered, with a tiny smile. Bethany nodded and looked into the other girl’s eyes regretfully. Martha took Bethany’s delicate hands into hers, rubbing her thumb over it gingerly. “It’s okay, I know how scary it is.”

“I’m glad you came, I really missed you. I didn’t realize how much _I_ liked _you_ until I couldn’t talk to you for a month, and it kinda felt like a part of myself was missing. I never felt like that with any of my boyfriends before,” Bethany admitted.

Martha let out a soft gasp, and tears nearly welled up in her eyes. “Bethany…”

And suddenly they were kissing, and it was nothing like the gross, wet, slobbery _slurping_ that she and Spencer used to do. Bethany’s lips were soft; they tasted like cherry lipgloss and rum, and she smelled like the flowers in her garden. The way the curves of their bodies fit together was different too; it was a new experience for both of them. Bethany moved her hand from Martha’s cheek to her waist, and led her out of the garden, their mouths still inseparable.

The music got louder as they re-entered the party again, and Martha’s heart pounded along to the beat. “Are you sure?” She whispered.

“Absolutely,” Bethany replied in between kisses.

The next thing they knew, they were on her front porch displaying their affection for all her friends to see. Nothing else mattered in that moment, and they were just two girls loving boldly and shamelessly. A different song was playing now, but Martha was more confident than ever. She wasn’t Ruby Roundhouse anymore; she was Martha Kaply and she was in love with a girl who loved her back.


End file.
